PHILADELPHIA (AP) — John Tortorella popped off after another Philadelphia loss — the sixth straight on his watch — and declared he was not interested in learning how to coach a losing team in another empty season.

It’s not his worry anymore.

The Flyers fired the notoriously brusque Tortorella on Thursday with nine games left in another losing season for a franchise that hasn’t been in the playoffs since 2020.

The decisive blow came when the Flyers were blown out by Toronto 7-2 on Tuesday night. Tortorella, who won a Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004, said after the game he was not “really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we’re at right now.”

“But I have to do a better job,” he said. “So this falls on me, getting the team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end.”

The Flyers will get to the end without him.

The Flyers named Brad Shaw the interim coach, then went out and beat Montreal 6-4 on Thursday night.

Flyers general manager Danny Briere said the decision to fire the coach with the season inching toward the end wasn’t necessarily because of Tortorella’s comments. He noted they were just “one of things that happened along the way.”

“I feel there’s probably more the frustration of the game and getting shellacked there in Toronto. The embarrassment that we all felt,” Briere told reporters in Philadelphia. “I tend to be careful with that and not put too much stock into it. I put it more as he was frustrated with how things have gone lately, and he was embarrassed by the loss that night, just like a lot of our players were.”

The Flyers lost 11 of their last 12 games under Tortorella and won only six times over the last 25 — a massive blow for a rebuilding team that had mild playoff hopes entering the season.